I don't remember how many little details I told you about the area and ward last time, but basically I live in a TINY house that is always FREEZING cold, I am biking full-time IN A SKIRT, there are 8 missionaries in the ward which is crazy, annnnd I think thats about it! haha it will be fun. One of the things I was most excited about coming on the mission was meeting and coming to love people-- so I just have to look at this as a new opportunity to do that! :))
Let me tell you a little about the people! We only got fed twice this last week- once we ate with the bishops wife Hermana Jacob. It was very different from Obispo Morales thats for sure, but I will get used to it I guess! Our bishop is WHITE but like grew up in Guatemala or something crazy like that- and is very strict about not speaking any english around him (even just with other missionaries). I didnt really get to talk to him a lot, so I don't know too much about him, but we will see!
Then the other time we ate with Hermana and Hermano Zamora, the ward mission leader and his wife. HE IS SO FUNNY. Him and his wife literally scream at each other to communicate-- it scared me but I guess they do that all the time. So I had met Hermano Zamora once before when I came back for a baptism with Hermana Williams (This was my companions old ward) I dont know if I am making any sense but anyways-- Hermano Zamora said to me, "I know I have seen you before, but I think before you were wearing glasses. You look better like this, before you looked NERDY." hahaha I died it was so funny. And his wife talked literally the entire hour we were there haha barely got any words in- they are a hilarious couple.I'm sure I will have plenty of funny stories about them. :) But they are such humble people that work hard for the ward especially with the missionaries!
And investigators!!! So I havent met everyone yet still, but I will tell you about Monce this week. Monce is I think in his 50s- he was supposed to get baptized on the 15th of February, but didnt show up to church and then had some drama with his son, so he wasnt baptized then. So when I came here, the first thing we did was re-set a date with him. We set the date March 1, and he was on board and everything. So we jave been going over every day to teach him, and the first night we went over, he was drunk in his car just bawling. So we asked whats up and he said that his wife had said some things that offended him. She got mad that we had been coming over and started being really mean to Monce... so we talked to him, read some scriptures, listened to him, and left. Then he was fine the rest of the week!! We had a really powerful Atonement lesson with him, and talked a ton about his baptism, and we thought everything was all good. Then he didnt come to church on Sunday (we had went over in the morning and he said that he had to go look for his son but would come after). Man this is hard to explain sorry! So Sunday night we went to his house to find out what happened... he was WASTED. Like had to have friends holding him up status. It was SO sad.... so we were trying to talk to him, but he was really scary. He was falling over, getting really mad, flailing and kicking his legs-- but he told us that his 20 year old son had been gone for 2 days and he had no idea where he had been, but he went and tracked him down. Monce had packed up his son's stuff, then basically kicked him out of the house. So the son was mad and said to Monce "you're nothing to me" stuff like that. Which made Monce even more mad-- They fought, Monce got really worked up and then his friends came over and they all got drunk.... it made me so sad to see. Monce was having it hard... Soo suffice to say he cant be baptized this week, and we tried to see him this morning but he said he had to leave to do taxes. I'm worried about him :(
Tito in West Lake Houston is getting baptized this week I'm pretty sure!! Hermana Williams called and asked if I could come so hopefully everything will work out!! I am really happy for him-- Tito has come a LONG way!! :) And he needs this so bad in his life right now. I just know the gospel is what will bring him happiness and peace :) I love Tito!
Okay quick miracle story that is going to be also really hard to explain... but SPECIFIC PRAYERS ARE ANSWERED!!! Okay so every night we plan right, and the Broadway Zone does this thing that they call "Fear No Man" where we go out contacting for an hour every day. Its like Hour of Power, but whenever you want during the day-- so! We plan every night for when we want to do that, and Fonoimoana Lessary and I also started planning who we wanted to teach, how many people we wanted to find, etc.
Tuesday night, we planned on finding a family of 3. We prayed for it all night and the next day, and when we were contacting, we knocked doors and walked past some guy leaning up on his car-- started talking to him. He has 3 people in his family, wants to learn more, and come to church!! :) He told us about a lot of problems he has been having so we prayed right then and there with him and then later-- he found work! His name is Aldo and we are hoping to be able to teach him this week!
Then Wednesday night- we planned Fear No Man and said we wanted to find a couple the next day that would be interested. So we prayed about it. Thursday we were knocking, and came up to this house that we were about to knock, and some old guy came out from the back and said, Hey what are you doing out here?? So we told him we were missionaries and he said, "Oh do you want to preach to me right now?" haha basically he let us right in and then told his wife to come out and listen to us. We taught them the whole first lesson, they had a lot of questions but were really interested!! Then we told them about how we had prayed to find a couple and he said, "Oh thats no coincidence! I was sitting in here and realized the outside light wasn't on. I never leave my house, but I wanted to go turn the light on- right as I walked out, you all walked up. The timing was perfect" SO there was that!!! :)
Thursday night we planned to find one person that we could teach during Fear No Man. We prayed about it, and Friday knocked into this lady that just started crying when she saw us. Her name was Mary Holy Bear (we taught her in english) and basically she has an INSANE life story. Like stabbed her mother to death and has been to jail tons of times. She told us that the Mormons started coming and talking to her a long time ago, but when she told her what she had done, they never came back. So she had a TON of guilt and fear in her that she wasnt good enough... we talked to her for a long time and read scriptures with her and she cried to us a TON just telling us all about her past and how she so badly wants to get to heaven but she won't be able to. So we told her about baptism and talked about the Atonement and she just cried and cried. She said "I havent been baptized yet. I know I need to. God has been telling me that for a long time"... so we gave her referral to the english elders!
Friday night we planned to find another family of 3 and I felt like the dad would be more interested. So we prayed specifically, and Saturday we were knocking. Our plan was to go to this one apartment complex and knock, but as we were walking over there, some dogs chased us back so we ran and hid on a different street... haha then we figured that was probably for a reason so we started knocking there. The first house we knocked on, this man walked out and we started talking to him about the church and his family. He lived there with his wife and one kid... family of 3! We asked if his wife would be interested in listening to a message and he went and asked her and she said no..but he was interested! He asked us for a pamphlet and we taught him the Restoration... we asked him a lot of questions and he had plenty of questions too. We asked if we could come back and he said he would have to ask his wife (who said she didnt want us to come back) but!! WE still found a family of 3 where the dad was more interested! Whaaaa?
Basically this week was yet another strong testimony builder of specific prayers! I know that God has people prepared for us as missionaries to go find and teach!! He wants us to set those goals, make plans, and pray about them!! After we pray about our goals we have to get out and go to WORK!!! :) We are working so hard here and I am so grateful for my companion and her desires to be diligent and hardworking! This area has been known to not baptize very much (the last baptism was in Nov, but the one before that was in Dec 2012) but me and Hermana Fonoimoana Lessary are determined to change that! We have a goal to baptize 6 this transfer so now we just have to make the plans, pray about it, work hard and let the Lord do the rest!! :) <3 I love this work, I love the Lord, I love the gospel!! I am coming to love people here-- My heart is still in West Lake BUT i am praying so hard to see the potential and have love for these people too!!! My heart is growing so much!!
I love you all! Have a great week! :)
Hermana Rogers
No comments:
Post a Comment